North Sentinel Island

India / Andaman and Nicobar Islands / Bombuflat /
 island, dangerous place / area, interesting place
Part of the Andaman Islands. No tourist activity. Home to a tribe of indigenous people, the Sentinelese, whose present numbers are estimated to be anywhere between 50 and 400 individuals. To this day they have responded with extreme aggression to any attempts at contact. India claims ownership of the island, but exercises no de facto control over it.

The polygon follows the approximate high-tide line before the great 26 december 2004 Indonesian earthquake. Tectonic plate displacement in that event lifted the island by 1--2 meters and large parts of the coral reef became exposed, substantially enlarging the island's outline.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sentinel_Island
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   11°33'21"N   92°14'30"E

Comments

  • Home of North Sentinelese people who have never had any contact with the outside world and are a throw back to the hunter gatherer era of humans.
  • This island is a treasure for all humanity and have to be protected at any price: this is the home of the last totally independant and uncontacted people on earth. Please visit http://www.survival-international.org/tribes/jarawa/sentinelese and http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter8/text8.htm#sentineli
  • perhaps the only way to protect these people from western influence is to avoid contacting them. No outsider could ever visit these islands to watch these people and their lifestyle. If the jarawa do allow us to visit them, they will change their lifestyle. Leave them alone - is the thing to do.!!
  • I am Indian. I believe Indians are outsiders as well. For these tribes, there is no difference between western-influence or indian-influence. The fact is that Indians are moving and settling on these islands taking land away from the tribes. Who authorized the Indian government to take over the land that belonged to the tribes, and sell/give away to the Indians from mainland? Why are there settlements in North Andaman of all the places? Isn't there enough space in mainland for all the non-tribals?
  • Let them live in their own happy world,far from our world of terror,they do no harm us and atleast we can turn back and look our ancestors.Don't disturb them.they r always happy are we always ?
  • this tribe is destine to be a victim of rising sea levels, i'd give them 2 centuries, max.
  • they must be pretty inbred by now
  • It's interesting to note that even at the maximum zoom, no evidence of civilization or settlement can be seen, i.e. cleared land, houses etc.
  • The other reason why the world should not contact the islanders is the danger caused by our viruses, which - due to the lack of immunity - may lead to their disappearance faster than rising sea levels. But it would be great to somehow transport a sound - a camera, a micro - so that we can finnaly observe them, learn their lifestyle, maybe decypher the language. One helicopter is reported to have been attacked by an archer, but maybe under the veil of the night... There's no sense in destroying their culture, like what happened to the Great Andamanese, but there's equally no sense to ignore their existence at all. We've been on the Moon, we've sent sounds to Mars, we know what the relic radiation is - what is present on our own planet should be of much more interest to us, especially if it's a relic of the pre-civilisation era. @rodrigo "This is the home of the last totally independant and uncontacted people on earth." Actually there are still many of them in Amazon and on New Guinea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples
  • These people should not be contacted. The second un-contacted tribes are contacted they go from being well off and happy to the poorest people in the world, left begging for food.
  • No agriculture - they are hunters and gatherers no need to eliminate their source of food (forest) Architectural culture is primitive , and population is quite small , and reasonable height of their buildings (if they even have them or need) is only 1 ground floor. And the trees on this island, as we can see on the videos or photos is much higher. Also it is the reason not to build houses on the open ground - trees can protect from the sun and somewhat from rain.
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